MegPhD

I was so excited to find this thread! I'm attending WashU in the Fall (PhD in Applied Psych of Learning & Motivation in Dept of Ed), but I've lived in STL since ~2013, and I love to share information about the city. I lived in the downtown STL area for several years, then moved to Clayton 2 years ago. My husband also attended WashU (JD, MBA), so our lives have always revolved around the campus, which we lived 5 minutes from by car. I'm happy to answer any questions about life here, but I don't explore the city as much as I used to when living downtown; Clayton is fairly sleepy, as is most of the county, and we're usually too lazy to drive back into the city to do things. For housing, I'd recommend sharing a house near WashU or looking at the new developments in the Delmar Loop. The high-rise buildings in Clayton are great and have lots of studios and 1BRs, but the price is a bit higher. I have a car, but plan on using the Metro to get to campus, which is only feasible if you find housing along its route (St. Louis is anything but walkable, so having a car is great, and traffic isn't an issue). Any first-timers should visit Forest Park (Boathouse, Amphitheatre, etc.), the Arch, the Central West End, the Zoo, the Botanical Gardens, the Cardinals Stadium, the Blues Stadium, the almost-finished Soccer Stadium, and the Ferris Wheel. For food, the best offerings are generally BBQ (Pappy's and Sugarfire are my personal faves), but there are lots of stand-outs (Lona's Lil Eats, Seedz Cafe, Guerrilla Street Food, The Dam, Pi Pizzeria, Lulu's, Natasha's, Rooster, Bailey's Range, Hi-Pointe Drive-In) that can usually be found in Tower Grove or Central West End. The food is reasonably-priced and the portions are sizeable.

Hi! I'm a former teacher and school administrator who is beginning a PhD program this fall. It's full-time and fully funded, so I'm explicitly not allowed to take on any paid work. My PhD will be in the Applied Psychology of Learning & Motivation through the Department of Education, so it's a little different in scope than yours. As a result, my research on schools (located in the Midwest) focused mostly on Educational Psychology (as opposed to the practitioner side of education doctoral programs). I came across many Doctor of Education programs that allowed part-time (or even full-time enrollment) in addition to working a full-time job, but I didn't see any PhD programs with this model. The key difference between the EdD and PhD is the research - PhDs are expected to devote themselves 24/7 to research, while EdDs should apply their learning to their immediate practices. If it's a typical PhD program, I'd imagine it will be difficult to publish enough during your time as a graduate student to be in consideration for tenure-track positions (unless you have an amazing mentor who can work with your schedule to loop you into current projects and have you included as a named author on articles). This, of course, becomes even more difficult given that you'll be competing with fellow students, who probably don't have any constraints on their time and availability. However, I 100% empathize about wanting to keep earning at the same levels while in graduate school; I'm taking a 70% paycut to get my PhD, and it definitely hurts.

I would agree. From what I've heard, the most important thing is conducting research that ends up being published in prestigious journals - the school where you do that research doesn't really matter very much. I'd pick a lower ranked school with a professor who is in line with my research experience any day. Once you graduate, those published articles will matter a lot more than the school name.

Has anyone heard from WashU (Olin) yet? Applied to OB with support for candidacy from POI.